PBP: P01135809 Trump Espionage, Coup, Conspiracy, Racketeering, Fraud & Obstruction Trial Thread

Republicans think they can ride the dragon. All of them.

 

Pleas tell me that this is correct

When EJ Carroll and AG James start seizing and liquidating Trump properties, he's going to be liable for the capital gains taxes on them, since they've appreciated substantially since he bought them.

Which means he'll owe the IRS $100M's, too.

His house of cards is imploding. pic.twitter.com/wIbLFkO4a9

— Monty Boa (@MontyBoa99) March 1, 2024

 

Death transfer is different. It is something GOP have been fighting and winning to never get taxed. Any money or property bequeathed to you from a dying family member is almost always tax free. It allows for continued generational wealth.

 

Right; and it is about the least meritocratic and libertarian thing imaginable. I have spent a lifetime trying to find just one self-professed libertarian who will agree with me that it would make more sense for the state to inherit most of one's wealth when one dies, to be used for social security, Medicare, housing the homeless, caring for veterans, etc. The meritorious can already jump start their kids with proper food and healthcare and good education and first cars, even first houses; there's no reason to enable a world where the kids of the people who work for the meritorious will have to work for the kids of their parents bosses, however mediocre or worse they may be.

Even as a hypothetical it seems to be repugnant to people who insist that Utopia should be a meritocracy; all I ever get out of the discussion is called "comerade..."

 

Not quite. What’s true on death is that property gets a stepped up basis to its fair market value on the date of death. That makes a (potentially large) difference if and when the property is subsequently sold.

I’m also in the camp that feels this is a totally inegalitarian situation that just perpetuates wealth within families.

 

I'm not.

Why should the death of someone become a taxable event? First off, the money has already been taxed. And secondly, unless you want a society with 100% redistribution of income, why would money left to one's kids be what is targeted?

I think the more relevant issue is how can we ensure that more families have wealth to perpetuate.

 

It isn't really money that is the issue-- each generation's drop cases can be relied on to piss that away. It is ownership, control-- when they run businesses into the ground, they trash employee lives...

 

Are folk seriously arguing against the death tax, a tax that affects almost no one in this country yet is used to fund all kinds of social programs?

 

So has the money from income tax, corporation tax etc.

Truth is, the rich aren’t taxed properly because they use debt to finance their lifestyles rather than income. A death tax makes little difference - to redistribute wealth properly you need a small asset tax rather than an income tax.

(Zakat is excellent at that - you pay 2.5% of your excess wealth annually to the poor, and you pay it annually regardless of whether there’s a taxable event like when you sell or realise a capital gain - it’s based on your total asset value excepting your necessary assets like main home etc).

 

if I take my money and pay you to fix my car, the money I’m paying you has already been taxed so why should you pay income tax on it?

When it’s you getting money from me for you doing some work it seems silly to argue your income from fixing my car shouldn’t be taxed.

Why then should you be exempt from tax if you didn’t even do any work????

Look at it this way…inheritance taxes are taxes on unearned income. We tax earned income so not taxing unearned income is perverse.

Get it? Death isn’t a taxable event. You getting money from someone else’s death is the taxable event.

 

Because it's income to the person receiving the inheritance.

 

I stand to inherit millions from my parents. I plan to give most of it away, and don’t really care about how much the govt takes away in taxes, even if it was most all of it.

I’m a strong believer in the Carnegie Way. Dad has helped me and my siblings plenty already.

 

Do you need a new best friend? Or better yet, Would your parents like to adopt two adorable grandkids?

I am buying a Real Salt Lake Jersey as we speak.

 

Mostly, the $$$ is put in a charitable trust for us to administer after my parents pass. We could largely pay ourselves, but I think most of us won’t.

 

A step up in basis has zero impact until said property - real or otherwise - is sold. So not only does the inheritor receive the benefit of inheriting property, they receive the benefit if and when they sell.of having an increased basis solely due to it being inherited. If anything, I would flip the argument around:- if you don't want death to be a "taxable event", why isn't the basis left unchanged on inheritance?